Mechanical pets are a great addition to any team! They are furry, and cuddly and adorable and—and—and! Whoops. I mean cute and assembled. These little guys can pack a wallop if you aren’t careful. “Come with me if you want to live!” Mechanical Squirrels have great defensive abilities like Extra Plating, and Repair. Extra Plating reduces all damage done by 50% for 3 rounds, and Repair heals your pet for a significant amount! (depends on your pet’s level). This pet is not too be underestimated! A well-played level 22 squirrel can easily take out 3 level 25 wild pets without rusting his tail. At level 20 mechanical squirrels get a mean ability called Windup. The first use increases damage by 10%, the second unleashes a flurry of attacks that could very well knock a pets lights out! That my friends, is one tough metal head.

STORM PEAKS WEATHER FORCAST: Today will be partly cloudy, with a high of 30 and a low of 15. Snow will accumulate shortly after maintenance, and dwindle off near the afternoon.

FINALLY. I nearly jumped out of my seat with joy when I saw the snow blowing around K3. I had been camping the Storm Peaks for the better part of a week and a half. The goal was to complete Northrend Tamer, which would in turn give me Continental Tamer. I was having terrible luck at seeing any sign of snow, and I began to wonder if it was a myth!

My guild master had told me that he had never noticed any snowfall in the Storm Peaks. I was floored. Does this snow exist? Well, as you can see above, it most definitely does. Pets that reside in the Storm Peaks will only show themselves when it is snowing. These pets are the Arctic Fox Kit, Arctic Hare, Mountain Skunk, and Spider. The Arctic Fox can only be found in the Storm Peaks. I searched for a short time for the Rare Arctic Fox kit, but unfortunately I only came across uncommon ones.

It seems to be all up to luck. From time to time I would ask in General chat if it had snowed that day, and sometimes people would say it had snowed at 3 p.m. , or very early that morning. I managed to catch it snowing right after maintenance. If you are hunting up that way, waiting for the pets to scurry out I would suggest to try after maintenance! Happy Hunting.

The Plot: I have the luxury of working almost entirely with men at my current job, and it is fastly progressing into somewhat of a nightmare. I can now say that I’ve denied two the chances of dating me. The first one got my number because I was intending on helping him with a school project. Afterwards, I never heard of the school project again, but I was badgered with requests. Lets go out for drinks! Over, and over again. He also went on to call me “baby” in texts. PUH-LEASE.

Needless to say I gave him the cold shoulder, and he got the hint. Recently, I discovered that one of my other work mates plays Wow! He had just come back, and was trying to get into the game. We talked wow talk and I agreed to give him my number. The warning signs had begun. He plays an alli toon. O.O What in the name of christmas trees! His character was fairly low-level, so I humored him and made an alli character. I ended up making a Gnome priest with pink hair. I was really happy with it 🙂

We chit-chatted about a few different things, and I could plainly see that he was very, very unacquainted with the game. It was thanksgiving day, so just as I was about to wrap it up and go nap my dinner away he asked if I would like to go out sometime. I was a bit shocked. In my head I was like “Pfff no. Just no.” But my fingers quickly dug my grave and we were all set to go see a movie the following Sunday.

He is charmingly quiet, and non-abrasive. I had no doubt that this would be an easy encounter, though I was apprehensive to call it what it was. A date. I haven’t ventured down the whole “dating road.” I had a boyfriend all through high school, played like a girl should all through college, and now I am at this crossroad. What is this thing people call a date?

My definition of a date is when two people, with common interests come together to share quality time in order to get to know each other. Okay check.

A day prior to our date he asked if I wanted to hang out before the movie. For some odd reason this made me uneasy. Now things were starting to get complicated. I asked him what he had in mind, and it turned out he had nothing really in mind. I mentioned going out to get a small bite before the movie. So, I agreed to meet him an hour and a half before the movie started. It bothered me more than words can describe because he was so adamant on getting together sooner than we had planned. At this point, this date had become more like a chore for me. My instincts were starting to kick in, I now know. Of course at the time I believed I was thinking foolishly.

I wore a fairly conservative outfit. I wore jeans, with a low-cut top. Luckily, I had shyed away from my usual skirt and stockings. I met him at the shopping center at 5:30, and we shuffled into the local pizzeria. I absolutely love this pizza shop. It is run by an italian family that has been making pizza in our town for as long as I can remember. We each ordered a slice, and I took charge and paid. Whoops? I know this isn’t the usual method, but I was nervous, and it just happened! He had no problem with it. We sat and talked about quite a few personal things until about twenty minutes before the movie started.

“Do you really wanna go see this movie?” He said.

“I don’t care. If you don’t want to we don’t have too,” I replied with a shrug.

“I’ve already seen it, and I really don’t feel like sitting through a movie right now. I”m really enjoying our conversation.” He said.

Alright, I can’t argue with that. I wasn’t dead set on the movie to begin with. Apparently through our conversation I had said some hot sexual words such as “nail” or “hammer.” He commented on them, and I didn’t entertain the conversation, or lead it in that direction. At some point we headed out into the shopping mall. He wanted to avoid everything. The shopping mall is sinfully tiny, but he didn’t want any part of it. We got into my car and we ended up sitting there talking. What came next was catastrophic.

He began by saying, “There’s something you need to know.” Anything that starts with that CAN”T be good. He went on to inform me that he has a girlfriend. He has a girlfriend that lives with him. To make things even more interesting, he not only has a girlfriend that lives with him, but she is bi-sexual and they currently entertain the idea of an open relationship. ”

She knows I am here right now,” he told me.

The conversation now takes on a different tone. He began asking me if I was bi-sexual. I told him I was not. He then asked me if I’d ever do a threesome. OMG. This is just toooooo much.

At that point I had already begun texting my brother and I was planning my great escape. I decided that we would drive to Wal-mart, and I would look for gloves. I could tell that he didn’t want to be in Wal-mart. Apparently, there was too many people that he knew there, and at the other store as well. It turned out, that he didn’t want to have to explain to other people why he was with another girl. My mind was blown.

After that he mentioned how he slept with a girl on a first date before. When did he magically become a dog? At that point he was intending on sleeping with me. After I bluntly told him that was not going to happen he started persisting trying to get anything out of me. Wrong thing to do buddy. He wasn’t getting anything from me. My disgust level was over flowing.

I called my brother and made my great escape. That was the worst date I have ever been on. The worst. Of course that was the short version of the whole fiasco, but the details are just mind-blowing. I was so angry. Infuriated! Take your alli toon and go jump off the biggest cliff you can find!

I’ve been thinking this over for a few hours, and I’m a bit sad about it now. I feel bad for him. I hope he can see past his foul ways and learn how to treat a woman like the lady she is. I understand the whole “seeing what’s out there” mentality. Been there, done that. I’m not interested in it any more, and if he is going to spend the next few years of his life trying to get laid at every turn….the dude better get better game! And delete his alli toon. That is all.

And as for me…I think I’ve just been scared away from this whole dating thing for a long time. It takes me a long time to snuggle on up to people. My outgoing personality masks this. I have a strong protective bubble that few can break into. This experience is really going to make it harder for the next person to break through.

Reminds me of a really good Disco Priest Shell. 210k absorption. Take a swing at that.

After trying to look up some problems within the Priest healing class, I stumbled across a few scenarios within 10 man raids, and 25 man raids. To my dismay priests were pulling up the rear in healing, followed by druids, shamans, pallys were trailing monks, and it seems monks (being OP) were leading the pack. Looks like a race, sounds like some BS. What is the problem here?

1. Level 90 talents, which are supposed to be situational, often pull aggro from unwanted mobs, and if not used perfectly can be a huge waste of precious mana.

The talents are Cascade, Divine Star, Halo.

Cascade

40 yd range 9% of base mana

25 sec cooldown Instant

Launches a Holy bolt at the target that grows in power as it travels, which causes up to 10,290 damage to an enemy, or up to 10,290 healing to an ally.
This effect can bounce from allies to other allies, or from enemies to other enemies. Each time it bounces it will split into 2 bolts, preferring farther away targets, and never hitting the same target twice. Cascade can bounce up to 3 times.

Divine Star

30 yd range 4.5% of base mana

15 sec cooldown Instant

Fires a Divine Star in front of you, traveling 24 yds, causing 3,429 Divine damage to all enemies and 3,429 healing to all allies within 6 yds of its path.
After reaching its destination it will return to you, also dealing damage and healing to all targets in its path.

Halo

30 yd range 13.5% base mana

40 sec cooldown instant

Creates a ring of holy energy around you that quickly expands and grows in power, up to 30 yds away. Deals up to 20,580 Holy damage to enemies, and up to 34,301 healing to allies, with the greatest effect at 25 yds.

These talents are completely mana inefficient. A well positioned halo would be effective, but if judged wrong, the most expensive ability at level 90 now becomes a BUST. There’s an addon I have yet to try that is called Halo Pro that is supposed to help with maximizing the healing on the target you’ve selected. It seems worth and try since halo is the strongest talent available. Though, with people constantly on the move (especially during a raid boss) positioning yourself, and then actually hitting your targets is another game entirely. For example, yesterday in LFR I was rolling with halo. Being a priest, I don’t move unless I have too. Most times there were a few folks that were a nice distance away, and they got the full benefit of this heal. Then again, I was trying to hit the tank that was a little further away, and it missed him. WHOOPS!

2. Mana, and Mana Regen.

So, what do priests have to complain about?

Rapture has been nerfed, so instead of giving a certain % of mana back, it gives back mana for 150% of your spirit, which does not even cover the cost of one Power Word: Shield. So, instead of gemming all out for intel, we are now forced to gem for spirit. Remember when we could get away with having gear without spirit? Those days are over. It’s too costly these days. Get gung-ho for spirit!

Holy’s mana situation this expansion was shocking. Mindbender is moody. If it is used on a boss that goes inactive, or if it is used on a mob that dies, there are times when it will return to your side. I’ve caught mindbender chilling at my side on more than a few occasions, and I wish I could reach through the screen and slap him silly. I’ve been more mindful of when to use him since these occurences, but I still find him at my side from time to time.

I noticed a lot of people who have been playing disco as their main are now switching over to holy because of the mana situation. I have been playing holy as my main for about 4 years, going on 5. Wow time flies! I’m finding holy’s mana situation so awful that I wouldn’t even trust myself with that spec in a raid at the moment. Needless to say I am tank healing for our first raid boss, The Stone Guardians, so I don’t have the choice to play holy either way.

3. Lightspring or Lightwell

Lightwell has been through its ups and downs. It started having a bit of a come back in cataclysm, but it seems Pandaria is hellbent on thwarting it into its miserable place. Unlike lightwell, lightspring heals the players without contact. After most boss fights I see my lightspring sitting at 14/15 uses. This could be because I rarely let people fall below 50% health, but I digress. Lightspring is probably better suited for a raid environment, and remains in my eyes as a weak ability. I don’t have time to babysit my lightspring, and the original lightspring I put down will probably need to be replenished by the end of the fight. So how is lightspring really doing? Uh. About that.

4. Dailies

Welcome to the World of Dailes. I don’t know about you, but I absolutely hate dailies. One of my favorite little Shamans used to poke at me to do my Tol Barad dailies every day, and he would even invite me to his group just to get me away from the bonfire in Org. Soooo. What’s a healing priest to do when you roll both a holy and a disco spec? Struggle, with tears sweat and blood. I run disco for dailies and I get gang banged. Don’t get me wrong, I can do them by myself. It’s no problem. I had my cute little warrior friend go with me just recently, and he cut the time it takes me to do them in HALF. I don’t want to have to ask someone to come with me every day to do my dailies. There are just too many of them, so what’s a sweet priest supposed to do?

Pick up Shadow. Respec. Respec some more. Or, struggle like it’s the new and upcoming way of playing. (like me!)

With my experience in Mists of Pandaria, the four flaws that stick out like a sore thumb are : Lv 90 abilities, mana regen, lightspring, and dailies. Without a doubt, priests have major flaws in their character makeup, and the way that they are able to function within a raid environment, and in the world. The shortcomings of the priest class are so severe that it is common that they are pulling up the rear in healing numbers. I feel that my raid is paying a high price for a stam buff and a few bubbles.

This is the first outfit I popped out with at random as I started collecting gear.

Not as fly as I would have hoped but it’s what came together 🙂

Since I’ve already changed the outfit and no longer know exactly what pieces these are, this is just for show. She looks like a Mummy with scary glowy eyes! Happy Halloween! Above all, the most attractive aspect about this outfit is the Umbrella of Chi-Ji. The beautiful detail put into the offhand is just so fetch!

This item can be obtained by Archaeology! You have to dig and eventually you’ll be able to complete this rare item. Its well worth it for a off-hand when you first start gearing up, and its a great transmog.